Getting the Sale

I really hate that expression. Always have. Sounds grubby. But there I was (in better days) in the picture above at a language fair in Warsaw in the Middle Ages... getting the sale. Actually, I was being greedy, if I'm being really honest. I had one agent at my table listening to my 'pitch,' but then I spotted two other agents (far more important) drifting past, so I ditched the man in front of me to get the attention of the two women with the bigger possibilities. Rude, I know. The man was none too happy, as you can see, but I reckoned I already had him 'in the bag' and simply got greedy. Note the imploring open arms of love, affection and... hopeful begging. Not sure I managed to achieve the impossible of getting both agents, but in those days I was cocky enough to think I could pull that off. I think a competitor snapped the picture, chuckling at an adjacent table. In those days, it was a fight to get the richest prizes (ie the biggest agents) and to hell with everyone else.

OK... I know it's not easy to get the sale - probably even more difficult nowadays, with so much stuff being thrown at you by manic sales people, on and offline. The pickings are much thinner than in my day. I know that.

Anyway, I was asked by a school owner this week how to get a sale nowadays. In 2018. Not in the Jurassic Age when things were different and easier. He wanted a few solid, easily-understandable tips on how to get more students enrolling at his school. He reckoned that it was all due to price. The cheapest always won - it was basically a 'race to the bottom' and that was why he had been unlucky. Everything today had to be cheap, cheap, cheap. The successful schools discounted, then discounted again and finally discounted on top of the other two discounts. It was that simple. His words.

I sighed and then told him the story of how a student had recently booked a nice, 12 week course at a rather pricey school in London, shunning the cheaper alternatives, through my own company, SuperCourses (please excuse the shameless plug).

So why had the student chosen the ridiculously expensive school?

Easy answer. Because the school sales person had been brilliant. I mean that. Simply brilliant.

This is how it had panned out. Incidentally, I could witness the whole process by reading through the conversation between school and student in the Message Box on my site. It was like watching a really good film on the telly, or listening to a beautiful piece of music. It really was that good.

OK... so how did it go down?

First, he was quick. And I mean really quick. He replied to the student's queries, almost before the student had hit the 'Send' button. Second, he wrote in clear, easy, 'low intermediate' English, avoiding silly idioms, or marketese words like 'pro-active' or 'bespoke'. Third, his replies were short and to the point and not meandering, cut-and-paste jobs, which some sales people can't resist. Fourth, he actually answered the questions asked. Surprisingly, many sales people don't do this. They tell the client what they think he or she should want to know, not what he or she actually wants to know. Fifth, he did not try to sell the course. No point in gilding the lily. Finally, and most importantly, he was really nice and friendly, even striking up a short conversation with the student about her home city, where he had recently been on honeymoon. There were even a few words in the student's own language. Brilliant. The student was enthralled, transfixed and firmly... on the hook.

There was even a bit of humour at the end when the sales person told the student not to eat the sandwiches in the school because they were too expensive. Far better at the cafe down the road. The student wanted to know more and loved that bit of unexpected, self-deprecating honesty. A few sentences later the student was confirming the course. They were friends now. Well, nearly. It was not just a business transaction anymore. There was trust between them. Wonderful. Brilliant. A masterclass on how to get a booking. I should add that the course was a good three hundred pounds more expensive than most of the others offered the student, which makes this sale all the more impressive.

So there you go. That's the answer if you can't get clients to give you their money. It's not just about being the cheapest or offering discounts. Tell them about your honeymoon and where to get the best and cheapest food when they arrive here. And be honest, open, easy-going, fast, informative and humorous all in the student's own language. Who said sales was difficult?